We Set the World Ablaze
by Dcow14
Summary: She had almost forgotten, how idiotic of her; she was disguised as a boy.
1. Fck Off

**W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE: 20XX/26/03 TIME: 0900**  
 **To: John Fenelly.**  
 **From: Kevin Anderson, Chancellor**

 **Re:** W.I.C.K.E.D Invitation.

With great excitement, I write to you about the potential your youngest child has shown in the upcoming trials, I am sure you are aware of. We have been seeking all around the world for the most capable children, whom just like your daughter, have scored immensely high in all four of our aptitude assessments; Genetic, personality, mental and physical. We are happy to be able to extend an invitation for her into our programme for the future and salvation of the human race.

Unfortunately, this invitation is for your youngest child only. She will be brought to our department and will be left in our care. We offer top grade education through mental and physical stimulations, tailored to your child's requirements and needs and will be kept safe from those infected with the flare with like-minded children in a top-notch dormitory. We cannot make any promises that you will ever see her again, due to the strict education regime.

While this is an invitation, I must reiterate the importance of your child's role in saving the human race.

Please feel free to accept or deny at any time, but consider your decision carefully, as once it has been sent and confirmed, you will no longer be able to change it. I look forward to hearing from you very soon.

 _Sincerely,_  
 _Kevin Anderson,_

 **Chancellor of W.I.C.K.E.D. (World In Catastrophe: Killzone Experiment Department)**

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE: 20XX/26/03 TIME: 0903**  
 **To: Kevin Anderson, chancellor.**  
 **From: John Fenelly.**

 **Re** : No.

Fuck off. I do not wish to have my daughter be tested on like some lab rat, no matter if it is for the "good of the world", or not.

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE: 20XX/15/04 TIME: 0830**  
 **To: Ava Paige, Assistant Director**  
 **From: Kevin Anderson, Chancellor**

 **Re:** The Fenelly Child.

I have received quite an unpleasant 'no' from John Fenelly regarding his youngest, in participating with W.I.C.K.E.D. This is not the reply we were anticipating. The Fenelly child is most important to continue our process, as she is one of the highest scorers in both physical and personality. She will give us much hope in our experiments.

I am passing the role of encouraging them further, regarding the matter of agreement with the child's participation.

Do whatever it takes.


	2. Crow

**A/N Sorry for the wait! The next chapter will be the same as this one ('emails' only), so keep that in mind, other than that, shout-out to my first follower! :)**

 ***Extra brownie points if you get who Crow is named after ;)**

 ***Sorry for any errors***

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Crow**

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE:** 20XX/29/04 TIME: 1816  
 **To:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor  
 **From:** Ava Paige, Assistant Director

 **Re:** The Fenelly Child

I am writing this to inform you that we have finally seized the Fenelly child. The parent wasn't very happy with us arriving at his house and trying to encourage him with accepting the invitation. The only option left was to eliminate the rest of the family, though the choice was not easy, as they were not yet infected with the Flare, the Fenelly child was far too promising to let go.

The child will be brought to W.I.C.K.E.D immediately. She seems to be coping with her family's sudden death extremely well, but we cannot risk any hidden or future damage, so she will be examined by the psychologist upon her arrival.

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE** : 20XX/01/05 TIME: 1045  
 **To:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor.  
 **From:** _[Neurology and Mental Illness Department]_ Dianne Greaney, psychologist.

 **Re:** The Fenelly Child Psychiatric Evaluation.

After extended periods of neuroimaging and psychiatrist examinations, I have identified common, but non-threatening grief reactions in the patient, the Fenelly child. The grief reactions are to be treated accordingly and be exterminated from her system properly. One concerning behaviour that has been pinpointed is her acute sense of hatred for females. This hatred might be linked to her mother's abandonment but it is not clear. I will conduct more tests and evaluations soon in order to find the cause of this deep-rooted mental problem. Treatment will be carried out as necessary.

 _Notes:_  
After brief analysing of the child's characteristics and previous learning abilities, we have discovered that she has taken a particular liking to chemistry and we have dubbed her a new name; 'Crow'.

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE:** 20XX/19/06 TIME: 1856  
 **To:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor.  
 **From:** _[Education, Skill Assessment and Participant Wellbeing Department]_ Irene Dennis, educator.

 **Re:** Maze Trials Participants; Fenelly Child implantation into Group A.

I am writing this to you, regarding a participant of the Maze Trials for group A. I have lengthily discussed this with other departments and we have come to the decision that the Kenelly child should be grouped with group A. Her hatred of females has grown immensely and sufficient treatment cannot be found in order to cancel out her technicalities, however we are doing our best in order to do so. It is amazing, however, to see how hatred can be so in-rooted into a person, and it is furthering our research. But, unfortunately, we cannot guarantee the other female participants' safety, therefore we recommend moving the Fenelly personage into group A. Since she has shown an exemplary intelligence for strategic thinking, observance, and decisiveness, we thought it best to not waste her, and send her in with Group A.

Of course, sending in a girl with fifty other boys might cause some confusion and ultimately, dangerous lust. We cannot ensure her safety in the Trial and might ruin the whole experiment. It is suggested that we disguise her as a male. Of course, we are not just disguising her for that purpose, we must also think of the greater good and marvellous brainwaves, patterns, imprints, and maps we will discover when she is revealed. It will be very interesting to see if they will 'banish' her or take her in interest.

We will begin to train her accordingly; posture, habits, voice, etc. along with her normal schedule, so that when she is in the Trial, she will be disguised properly. This is all under your command, but we believe that she is needed in group A. We all look forward to hearing your thoughts.

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE:** 20XX/20/06 TIME: 0730  
 **To:** _[Education, Skill Assessment and Participant Wellbeing Department]_ Irene Dennis, educator  
 **From:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor

 **Re:** Maze Trial; Group A-Crow.

Go ahead with the plan, I too think it will be worthwhile in the long-run and I expect Crow to maintain her intelligence while going through with this training.


	3. Group A

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! I'm thinking about a chapter every week, but it takes me quite a while to write so we'll see :)**

 **Comment Replies  
 _BookRain_ : Thanks so much for your enthusiasm and support for this Fanfiction. This is my first time so it's pretty nerve wrecking for me to publish things and I just wanted to let you know I'm really glad that you like it :)  
 _Zoey24_ : You'll definitely get an answer as to why Crow hates females soon ;)  
**

 ***Sorry for any mistakes***

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Group A**

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE:** 20XX/19/11 TIME: 0416  
 **To:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor  
 **From:** Irene Dennis

 **Re:** Crow, Report.

Crow has almost exceeded our expectations. She has a relentless intellect and chess-like manoeuvring-perfect for watching the other participants. She has shown a natural thirst for knowledge, uncommon for a child her age. Her other training is well on track as well, although a little slow, she is learning well.

Socially, she is so-so. Her classmates have mixed feelings about her because of her arrogant, judgemental character and insensitive, snappy tongue, but they cannot ignore the fact that she is rational and logical above all else and in a way, that she is right. As expressed before, she has a high hatred for females and has had an out falling with many girls, we suspect this to be because of her mother's abandonment of her-we are working towards a solution.

Our monthly MRIs have revealed that she is starting to loathe highly structured environments and blindly following rules and procedures -such as W.I.C.K.E.D (something that we expect of every participant) -without understanding necessarily why she has to follow them. Fitting of her personality. We will monitor her closely to prevent any further thoughts of rebellion.

Attached below is my first report of Crow.

Name: Crow "The Raven"

Age: 6 years and 8 months.

Height: 3'6"

Weight: 39.5 lbs

Hair Colour: Brown

Eye Colour: Blue

Personality Type: INTJ

Strengths: Relentless intellect, high observation skills, highly strategic mind, quick reflexes-mental and physical.

Weaknesses: Arrogant, judgmental, overly analytical, extremely disdains following rules and procedures.

 _Notes:_ She has begun to loiter around and taken a liking to older participant Minho, they both don't mind each other's company being similar in personality, although they squabble and quarrel relentlessly.

* * *

 **W.I.C.K.E.D MEMORANDUM**  
 **DATE:** 20XX/06/09 TIME: 1006  
 **To:** Kevin Anderson, chancellor  
 **From:** Irene Dennis, educator

 **Re:** Crow: Final Report.

Crow (Subject A47) has shown substantial growth in strategic planning and uses her creativity for planning contingencies and all courses of action for all possible scenarios. She stays calm, collected and detached from emotionally charged conflicts and will only be swayed by those who follow suit. Her other training is also exceptional, and we are confident in her ability to go undetected and unnoticed until she is at least mildly hurt-then she will have no choice but to reveal herself.

She is completely ready for the Maze Trial. We are waiting for your all clear.

Attached below is her final report.

Name: Crow "The Raven"

Age: 15 and 3 months

Height: 5'6"

Weight: 104 lbs

Hair Colour: Coffee Brown

Eye colour: Cornflower Blue.

Strengths: quick, strategic mind, high self-confidence, decisive, hard-working, open-minded, jack-of-all-trades, extremely observant, glibness.

Weaknesses: Arrogant, judgmental, overly analytical, following rules is distasteful to her, insensitive.

Notes: Over the years she has admitted her attraction and confessed several times to Minho (Subject A32), but is continuously rejected. Minho considers her glibness and charm annoying but they still enjoy each other's company. They bicker like an old couple constantly. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the both of them when she is in the Trial.

* * *

 _"Are you ready?" The voice was muffled by the lady's mask, and of course, by Crow's internal screaming._

 _"No." She managed to huff out. Before the needle was plunged into her arm, she thought about what a bitch this lady was._


	4. Slammed

**A/N: I hope all of you reading this won't think of Crow as a Mary-Sue, I try my best not to let her fall into that troupe of OC, but sometimes it can be a little difficult, I want people to know that she's ... strong? Hopefully, it shows through my writing. I get so insecure about my writing sometimes :/**

 _ **Comment Replies:**_

 _ **BookRain:**_ **Minho's about 1/1 and a half years older than Crow and this Fanfic is set about 8 months before Thomas and Teresa come into the picture. I hope that clears things out for you. And Crow's past will come up in the next couple of chapters, so I'm really excited to write about it!  
 _Zoey24:_ Thanks for your support Zoey,** **I'll try my best to compromise between speedy AND quality updates, who knows, maybe I'll even succeed?  
 _Mazelover:_ Thanks for loving my story! It'll be in 3rd person, but it will center all around her, so no POV-switching, just Crow.  
**

 **Thanks for all the love 3**

 ***Sorry for any mistakes***

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Slammed.**

A loud, shuddering clank above her head echoed throughout the strange, metal monster and despite the cool air, beads of sweat began dripping from her forehead. Her hands had trembled so hard and vigorously, she was afraid of them dropping off.

Another clank and the contraption lurched upwards, creaking heavily like an old lift that would shatter at any moment and send her plummeting to her death. Not that she knew if there even was a floor beneath her.

She shuffled backwards and struck a large, metal wall. She crumpled to the floor and pulled her legs up tight against her body, and hoped that somehow, her eyes would adjust to the darkness and her racing heart to the extreme bizarreness of this situation.

She couldn't help but think the worst when the pitch-black elevator began swaying. She was going to die in this cramped, dusty, stale box— _no_. If she was going to die, she was going down fighting. The lift swayed again, turning her stomach into slosh. She wanted to scream from all this madness, but nothing came, so she sat there, waiting. For what, she didn't know.

An eternity seemed to pass by, and Crow grew immune to the constant, harsh noise of chains and pulleys rattling. In this horrible jail, seconds had felt like forever and minutes had stretched into hours, although she knew that wasn't possible. Using her instincts, she knew only half an hour had passed.

One last clank and the box halted. She clambered up from her spot and looked up as she felt her recent fear whisked away and replaced by pure adrenaline.

A streak of ethereal light materialised at the ceiling of the box, and she observed it as it kept swelling. There was metal clatter before sunlight flooded into the room. After so long stuffed in the musty gloom, the light attacked her eyes, but she didn't look away. She needed as much time possible to think of a strategy to escape, and it all depended on who she had to escape from

There were voices up above; her stomach couldn't help but churn.

"Well, he's a pretty one ain't 'e?"

"Look at his hair!"

"What an ugly shank."

"Welcome to the glade."

"He's pretty _pretty,_ don't ya think?"

 _He?_

She was _not_ a he. She looked down at her chest, finding it wrapped around with a thick, tight bandage, it looked like she had no chest; it was flat as a board. She then went to smooth down her hair, expecting long tresses, not short, cropped hair. She wheezed, what the damn hell? This can't be possible. She might be utterly confused, but she was not a boy, unless...was she _cross-dressing_?

"Hey. Get ready." She snapped up.

Her eyes had mostly adjusted to the bright lights, and the shifting, towering shadows soon melded into bodies, faces, and torsos-people bending down and examining her as if she were an interesting toy through the split open ceiling. They were all boys, all of them, some younger, some older.

She was slapped with uncertainty and confusion. They weren't what she had expected, at all. They were just teenagers. _Kids._ Not the horrifying, 6-inch long fanged aliens or the humans with shotguns and knives and scars the length of her arm. Kids. A tiny shred of fear melted away, but not enough for her to lose all scepticism. Kids can still kill, no matter how twisted it might be.

Suddenly, she got it, at least, a part of it. Someone or _something_ sent her here disguised as a boy, for a purpose, for a reason she didn't have enough patience to figure out.

A figure lowered down thick, coarse rope, a miniature lasso tied at the end. She relucted for a moment, before gently placing her right foot on the lasso, gripping the rope hard as she was hauled toward the giant group of boys. Hands-lots of hands-clamped onto her, pulling her up. There was apparently no need as she was pulled up almost straight away. For a split second, she was terrified they would find out, but cursed herself for being that stupid, that's what they wanted her to do. To hide. To be controlled. To be their doll. She was not a doll to be manipulated.

The entire world spun, an array of different skin tones and faces and colours, but she didn't hesitate. There was one boy to the left of her, only one. If she was fast enough, she would be able to run into the humongous opening and when she escaped from their clutches, she would figure a way out.

She swung her fist as hard as she could.

A loud, large thud and she leapt.

Immediately, she regretted staring at the sunlight for so long, it left her eyes disoriented, leaving her to depend on her muscles, which were already aching with agony. There was an uproar behind her; shouting, swearing, foreign language. She felt a hand on her shoulder for a quick second, before she kicked into overdrive. Soon enough, she was halfway to the opening. Three-quarters.

She would have made it if it wasn't for her slamming into another person. Escape on her mind, she kneed the guy in the stomach before pushing herself up and running to the opening. It happened fast, she was tackled to the ground, groaning at the impact the hard earth had on her head.

She flipped herself over and was about to punch the guy in the face when she was pinned down. She wriggled for the life of her, but he was just too strong.

She glared at his dark brown eyes, desperation and frustration burning in hers, surprise and satisfaction in his.

* * *

"Alright, put the greenie in there." The guy in front of her commanded, he must be the leader. She didn't bother looking back as she was hauled inside a strange, lob-sided, wooden cage. She dragged her aching body across the cage, slumping into the solitary chair. She hated this. Being ordered around. She wasn't some dog that had misbehaved. She bit her lip hard, the kind of hard that would draw blood, and sucked it up. She needed time to plan her escape, and what better than being stuck in a cramped, bamboo jail than to plan? Despite that, she couldn't ignore the fact that there were 4 walls, 4 colossal walls, that looked like there was no way out.

Before, when she was pumped with adrenaline, she didn't care, hell, she didn't even realise they were there, or that they were so damn _huge_ to begin with—she could see the grey concrete and the vines snaking their way up even from here.

That got her mind thinking.

What would happen if she had made it out? Would she even survive if she had? She was so focused on escaping that she hadn't even thought about what she would do afterwards. She realised it now. She was just being reckless. No planning, no weapons, no food—what was she thinking?

If there _was_ a way out, there wouldn't be anyone here.

"Hellooooo? Greenie?" Her dull grey eyes flashed to his hazel ones. His eyes were dull, but not like hers. It was as if they were worn down by fatigue, as if being the leader had worn him down.

She cleared her throat before speaking, realising that focusing on her mistakes would only make her more prone to them. "How long?" Her voice had surprised her. It was low and husky, definitely too low for a girl. Once again, she thought about how this was all capable; how she could seem perfectly like a boy, how no-one had suspected her of being otherwise for so long. It couldn't be possible that she was trained to act this way, right?

"We do-"

She cleared her head of those preposterous thoughts, "In this...whatever the hell it is, how long?"

"A question. Well, that took quite a while, although I'm not complaining. No questions, greenie-not yet. Alby'll tell you everything tomorrow, on the tour, after you've calm-"

"I'm already calm."

"Well, then tomorrow-"

"Why can't it be today, right now?"

"That's another question, greenie."

"Just tell me how long."

He flashed a knowing smile, one that somehow seemed to piss Crow off. "Look, greenie, _I get it_. New place, new people; it's scary, it's confusing, you want to ask questions, you want them _now,_ you need answers _now._ Totally understandable. What isn't understandable, is you completely disregarding me, and my rules. Tomorrow. Tour. Questions _then._ Yeah? Nod if you understand."

She chewed on the inside of her cheek. Another thing she hated, being talked down to, even if she didn't know a single thing. Besides the anger and frustration, pride loomed behind her. She wouldn't follow some _somebody's_ rule, not without a reason, not when she didn't trust a single person. _No damn way_.

Nick scoffed, and she sneered.

"I've got to admit, you've got balls greenie." _Balls._ She had almost forgotten, how idiotic of her; she was disguised as a boy. Should she trust him with that information as well? No. Not when they've just slammed her away in prison for being a little feisty. Imagine when they find out that she's actually a girl; imagine when they find out that she was hiding it. What would they do to her then? Perhaps she will, maybe later, maybe when she's trusted them a little bit more.

Her belly distracted her from her thoughts, though.

Nick snorted, "All that punching hadn't done you any good, now did it? I'll be nice since this is your first day, green-bean, dinner's in an hour, so stay in here 'till then, 'till you calm down."

She sighed, "I'm already calm."

"Then I guess you'll just have to wait, an hour isn't so long-"

"I'm hungry. I'm hungry _and_ I'm calm, let me go."

 _"Again_ with the interrupting, is it so hard to _listen_ once in a while? One hour, then the baggers over there will let you go, okay?"

Crow didn't nod, in fact, she didn't even acknowledge him, finding a tiny little ladybug that had perched himself on Nick's vicious curls more interesting than Nick himself.

"One hour." Nick parroted, seemingly irritated, as he jogged away.


	5. Chaos

**A/N The reason why this took so long to be updated was because I was unhappy with this chapter, so I scrapped it and rewrote _everything._ I'm way happier with this version, so I hope you enjoy. I'm sorry it's so short, and that it ends with a cliffhanger but I like it like that! Anyways, sorry for the looong wait. **

**We've finally hit 10 followers! Yay!** **I'd like to give thanks to all the people who've followed, reviewed and favourited this story.** **  
Thank you to:  
Aayu10 Nachos, Artist-kun, BookRain, I Love Fairytale Endings, Mahree, PetitCartoonVert, Red raspberries, medashuri, ridellemystere and sweetpea22packers! (Sorry for any name mistakes)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

 _It was a hot summer day, the kind where cicadas would chirp loudly in the waist-high grass and the slow whisper of wind would flow by. Kids, as usual, were running around, throwing sticks and rocks and whatever else they could find at each other, their little legs pumping furiously along the coarse dirt road._

 _All except for one little girl._

* * *

Crow was in agony.

The clear, perfectly blue sky above betrayed the cramped shack. It was hot, scorching hot, in fact. Almost every second, a trickle of sweat would fall from her temple, filling the hut with her stench. The air was already musty and stale and smelt of mildew, but with her sweat infused with it too? Maybe it was because she was a girl, or maybe it was because the people who had shoved her in that stupid box had injected her with weird fluids or something, but the air was distasteful to her.

There was a scream in the distance.

It tore through her like a great shard of glass. She ricocheted up, not paying any attention to the rickety chair that had fell when she did so. All of her attention was on the matter at hand. What's happening? Are we under attack? No. They couldn't be, they were encased—protected by four humongous stone walls, sky high in the air. There's no way that could be under attack.

The scream came again, louder, desperate, petrified…human.

Crow's fist clenched the bamboo with blanched fingers, her nails digging deeply into the palms of her hand. She shouldn't be staying here, in a jail with nowhere to escape to, nowhere to run. She inched up on her toes in just the right time to see the guards—her guards—run from their posts, no doubt trying to help with the commotion. Should she do it? She knew that she could—that was the easy part, but should she do it? What happens if she runs out only to slam into the creature that was causing these screams? Would that really be a smart thing to do? Maybe staying in here is good, after all. There's protection.

Another scream came. It was the type of scream that made your blood run cold. It struck the brain and ignited some sort of primitive calling. Adrenaline rushed through her veins, fight or flight, stand and hide or escape and run, be brave or be a coward. Before she was even aware of making a conscious decision her legs moved on their own, pounding furiously across the small, concrete wall. It was a good thing the chair was so rickety. She pushed it towards the only solid wall and booted at one of the legs only 2 times before it had snapped off, the rotten wood crunching like a crisp apple being bitten, and fell down to its side gently.

She gripped the wooden leg hard in her palms before raising it and whooped the closest bar of bamboo with all her might. Once more, twice. The fifth time was when it finally cracked. Splitting into two frayed pieces of bamboo bars. She kept going with the other bars.

Chaos was still going on. She could still hear screams, but they weren't as threatening as before, she could hear orders, and her ears strained for more sounds, for more clues as to what was happening, but the sound of wood hitting bamboo overlapped the insanity.

The makeshift hole was big enough for her to squeeze through now, so, still clutching the leg of her chair, she pulled herself up and out of the porthole. Some jagged bamboo got her, sliced some of her skin, but she didn't care. She had to see what was going on, what was causing all that upheaval. Crow had no clue as to what she'd do when she got there, in the middle of that chaos, the eye of the storm; just that she had to get there, fast.

* * *

Updated: 04/08/16


	6. Irritation

**A/N: Wow! Has it already been _that_ long? Thanks for waiting guys. Constructive criticism is life. Non beta-ed, sorry for any mistakes. **

**Thank you to the following lovely people for:**

 **Story Alerting: _Smudgster, Futago no Akuma Shimai,_**

 **Story Favouriting: _Smudgster, Futago no Akuma Shimai, Lykae'Sky_**

 **My love to you all.**

* * *

 _Colourful Tupperware, stainless steel pots, and wooden spoons lay scattered around the grassless front yard, stacked in peculiar, lob-sided columns. In the middle of it all, a young girl squatted, scratching math equations that were way more complicated than one would expect for a 5-year-old to be interested in, on the hard ground with her white chalk._

 _"Hey, you!" She looked up. 2 kids her age stood nearby, fishing nets in hands and bright, but lopsided, smiles on their faces. "You wanna go play in the water? First to five fish wins!"_

 _She replied simply, "I don't know how to swim."_

 _"Oh." The boy's smile faltered, and they left, muttering quietly about the weird girl who didn't know how to swim, even though she lived in a fishing village. She didn't mind, though, she liked math equations and chemicals more._

 _"This isn't good." She was shocked to find that her mother was standing behind her, hands on hips, as if her telling other people she couldn't swim was a shame to the family._

 _Her lips formed into a frown, "What's wrong, Mum?"_

 _"You're in a fishing village and you don't even know how to swim? That isn't right. Your friends'll think you're a loser. Come on." Before she could reply, her mother dragged her by the arms. She resisted as best she could; screaming, crying, her feet swirling up dust and dirt from the ground, but she wasn't strong enough, and soon, she faced the ocean._

* * *

She jogged along the small goat trail leading away from her jail, overridden with wild tufts of grass. Using her ears, Crow followed the commotion, stopping just at the edge of the entrance to the colossal patch of land in front of her.

Madness and confusion was etched on each and every person that had appeared before her, shown by deep-set wrinkles, and a thin sheen of sweat on their foreheads. Some were holding bandages and a small, acidic vial, others had grasped weapons—knives and spears and swords. Some, both medicine and weapons. Each person moves frantically in the crowd, as if there was no time to be wasted, pulling their eyes to one thing and then another. A patchwork of people-speckled grass spread across rickety buildings and noisy animals to ancient grey walls with plump vines and rusty red stains.

Something clamped onto her shoulder and before she could react, she found herself pulled back. For a terrifying moment, she thought someone had found out about her, ready to take her away and punish her for lying, and a wildfire took over her lungs.

Nick. Nick had pulled her back, and was watching, his mouth a thin line, as a group of people came limping through one of the 4 openings, straight ahead of them. Some were being carried by make-shift stretchers strapped together from branches, groaning. One boy was being supported by two others—screaming at the top of his lungs and thrashing wildly, his mouth frothing up.

That was the weird part, though. No matter how much she scanned his body for scratches or blood, there was nothing there. What was wrong with him? He could be a lunatic. It could be possible, going crazy in this place. Locked up without knowing why you were here in the first place, memories evaporated into thin air.

"You shouldn't be here." Nick scowled, as Crow was reminded of his presence, and slapped his hand off her shoulder.

"You should tell your boys to stop making things out of bamboo." Once again, she was surprised by her raspy, hoarse voice. It was conflicting. It hadn't seemed like it was natural; she was a girl and a girl's voice shouldn't sound like sandpaper. Should it? This amnesia was so frustrating.

An annoyed expression flickered across Nick's face and disappeared immediately as a strange metallic whirring chanted through the grass plain. Nick scanned the area in front of him, and so did Crow. Her eyebrows furrowed.

Crow wondered, "What's that sound?"

Nick didn't answer. He slipped out a knife from one of his leather boots, damp with fresh earth. This time, it was her turn to be annoyed. What's the point of a question if you're not going to answer it?

"Crow. There's no time." Nick slowly crept backwards. Before she was about to ask another question, she was interrupted. "Crow. This is serious; we have to get out of here. _Now."_ He said impatiently, so much so that it seemed like he was whining.

She was puzzled. Why wouldn't he just tell her what was going on, instead of beating around the bush?

"What?" Crow was almost too irritated to function. "What the hell is it?"

Nick's eyes widened with terror and what happened next was a blur. The mechanical whirring loud beside her ears, a quickening in her chest and a soft gasp for air.

For the second time that day, she was tackled to the ground.


End file.
